Rattlesnake Aversion Clinic

Cooper and Kanan are going to a Rattlesnake Aversion Clinic at The Barkley this afternoon.  We have lots of rattlesnakes in the local hills and the trails where we take them hiking.  The training involves wearing "bark collars" and introducing them to live muzzled rattlesnakes.  You can read about it HERE.  We asked if it would be okay to bring Ryan and Jacob along to watch as they are always so worried about rattlesnakes at the parks since they have "Beware of Rattlesnake" signs.  I wasn't sure if The Barkley would think this appropriate but they said it would be fine for them to come and watch.  I think it will be good for them to see what a real rattlesnake looks like and be aware they are to be avoided.

Justin and Sarah are back from their whirlwind European Adventure.  I thought I'd end my version of their travelogue with a wonderful photo of them in Paris!  Have a great weekend, Happy Easter and see you in April!

  

King's Landing

 On Saturday, Justin and Sarah (after taking trains and planes) arrived in Dubrovnik, Croatia.  They splurged here and stayed in a luxury hotel:  The Hilton Imperial Dubrovnik.  They were so fortunate to have a sunny, warm, clear day as you'll see in the photos where Justin is in short sleeves.  This was the part of the trip Justin was most looking forward to as I mentioned before as it is the location site of King's Landing in one of his favorite shows, Game of Thrones.  Dubrovnik did not disappoint!  All he could say was, "Wow...just wow!"  The walls and fortresses date back to the early Middle Ages!

My favorite photo.  Those doors are so intriguing!

The unluckiest boat in Dubrovnik!

Another beautiful photo!

Later this week, I should have photos from the final legs of this epic journey:  Dublin and Paris. 

Ryan has mastered riding his two-wheeler. At first he could only turn one direction but now he can do figure 8's! Way to go Ryan! The video should straighten out when viewed. For some reason, I can't directly upload iPhone videos to blogger so have to go through Vimeo.

Castles in Germany and Slovenia

Justin and Sarah are visiting a lot of castles and they will end their European vacation with a stay at a castle in Dublin.  They've been taking trains through the countryside and visited Neuschwanstein Castle in Southwest Bavaria, Germany.  Didn't the dark clouds give it an eerie Dracula's Castle-like look?

Justin & Sarah at Neuschwanstein Castle

After visiting the castle, they took an overnight train to Lake Bled in Slovenia, arriving at 6 AM.  They were able to check right into their hotel overlooking the lake and they had a beautiful, sunny day for exploring this glacial lake in the Julian Alps in northwestern Slovenia.  The lake surrounds Bled Island which has several buildings, the main one being the Pilgrimage Church of the Assumption of Mary, built in the 15th century, where weddings are held regularly. The church has a 52 m (171 ft) tower and there is a stairway with 99 steps leading up to the building. Traditionally it is considered good luck for the groom to carry his bride up the 99 steps on the day of their wedding before ringing the bell and making a wish inside the church.

Lake Bled and the island

Medieval Bled Castle in the background, swans in the foreground

Snow on the ground

Boat ride to Bled Island

Lake Bled Island and Pilgrimage Church

Justin checking out those ancient 99 steps!

Next stop, Dubrovnik, on the Adraitic Sea coast of Croatia.  As a huge fan of the HBO series Game of Thrones, Justin is most excited to visit this city which is the location of King's Landing in the series.  For any GoT fans, HERE's a site "Winter is Coming" that shows the location sites and a preview of what Justin and Sarah will be seeing in Dubrovnik.   

The Race Continues...

If you didn't see my last post, it's where Justin and Sarah's Amazing Race through Europe begins with photos of Amsterdam, Venice and Prague.  Continuing here with more photos of Prague.  Prague is famous for it's Gothic architecture and you can see the beautiful Tyn Church in Old Town Prague.  Tyn Church was founded in 1385.  Legend has it that Tyn Church gave Walt Disney the inspiration for Sleeping Beauty Castle.  Here's a closeup of Tyn Church.

  

Another famous landmark in Old Town Prague is the Astronomical Clock which dates from the 15th Century and is the oldest working astronomical clock in the world.  Every hour on the hour, you can see "The Walk of the Apostles" in which figures of the Apostles and other moving sculptures—notably a figure of Death (represented by a skeleton) striking the time; and a calendar dial with medallions representing the months.  Below is a photo of this famous clock.

Justin and Sarah in Old Town Prague (above) and sipping tea in an outdoor cafe (below)

Prague at night

 

After their stay in Prague, they took a evening train to Plzeň (Pilsen) also in the Czech Republic and visited a  brewery famous for being the birthplace of pilsner beer. And the only place in the world to get unfiltered, unpasturized pilsner beer. Delicious, and only 2 bucks a pint, according to Justin.  Here's what I assume to be the "Before and After" photos of their visit to Plzeň and it's brewery.

Before

Lovely light dusting of snow

After

Looks like Sarah is critiquing Justin's Czech/German drinking song

After their tour of Pilsen, they took a train to Munich, Germany where they are now as I write this entry.  In the next few days, they will be on more trains on their way to Mittenwald and Innsbruck in the Bavarian Alps.

This just in... a video Justin posted on Facebook.  They have arrived in Munich and are on their way to the Hofbrauhaus for beer and schnitzel.

Amazing Race European Tour

Justin and Sarah are on their Amazing Race style of an European Tour.  They arrived Friday in Amsterdam and then a quick flight to Venice, Italy.  The stop in The Netherlands was because that's where the cheapest flight from the US landed them.  Here's a photo taken in Amsterdam.

They stayed on a "Boat and Breakfast" Yacht in Venice.  HERE'S a link to their floating accommodations.  They were so lucky to have a gorgeous first day in Venice.  This is definitely on our bucket list.  Here are two photos of the famous canals.

They have now arrived in Prague in the Czech Republic.  They are staying in the historic Old Town Square at the Lippert Hotel.  There's a webcam showing the view they have from their room HERE and here's the photo Justin took of the view from their room.  The church you see is the Tyn Church.    

Construction of the Romanesque/early Gothic church started in 1365.  The grand portal was built in 1390. The West front wasn't erected until after the Hussite wars in 1485; the south tower was finished in 1511.  Although the structure is not the same, legend has it that Tyn Church gave Walt Disney the inspiration for Sleeping Beauty Castle.  And take a close look at the two spires on the church. They are not symmetrical. They represent the masculine and feminine sides of the world. This is characteristic of Gothic architecture of the period.

I'm posting this early on Sunday (Happy St. Patrick's Day) because we are going up to Ojai with Chris and Liz for an early dinner at The Ranch House.  They have a beautiful outdoor setting and we have 5 PM reservations so we can enjoy eating outside.  HERE's (another) link to The Ranch House.  You can have a virtual tour from that link and see the menus.  I'm ordering :

Chipotle Chicken Chevrie
Jidori free range breast of chicken stuffed with wilted spinach, wild
mushrooms, chevrie, toasted walnuts & thyme, rubbed with a sun dried
tomato pesto - baked -served with a cranberry tequila glaze.

The Three Amigos

Sierra is back visiting with us for the next two weeks while Justin and Sarah are on their latest European Adventure.  Here's a photo of The Three Amigos also known as "The Rainbow Coalition."

Justin and Sarah's trip includes the following cities:  Amsterdam, Venice, Prague, Pilsen, Munich, Mittenwald, Slovania, Dubrovnik, Dublin and Paris in that order.  In Venice, they are staying on a yacht and in Dublin they are staying in a castle.  Dubrovnik is their big splurge where they are staying at a luxury hotel.  I'll be posting photos over the next two weeks of their travels.  

I used an old photo of the dogs because my camera is broken.  What's really ridiculous is the only part that's broken is a tiny plastic pin that holds the battery in place.  I'm so irritated that they made a nice, expensive camera and put a piece of plastic in it that, if broken, makes the camera inoperable.  The battery light keeps blinking because it thinks the battery is low when it isn't because the battery isn't pushed all the way down due to the broken little pin.  I've tried adding things to keep the battery down- paper, a paper clip and other things- and nothing works.  I called Sony and they offered me two "solutions"  I could get 15% off a new camera or pay $130.00 to have the camera repaired!  Sorry, $130.00 is too much for a tiny piece of plastic that in my opinion is a design flaw.  Since I have a lot of accessories for the camera:  extra batteries, extra cards, nice case, etc... I decided I'd try to find the same camera on ebay and if I can get one for @ $50.00, I'll take a chance on a second one.  I have a couple I have my eye on and I know I can get one for $99.00 through a "Buy it Now" but I'm hoping to get one for a lot less.

Back update:  quite a bit improvement so hoping it continues to improve.  Even planted marigolds out front!

Finally, here's the kitchen cabinet makeover after I put the dishes and things back.  The box that says, "Dream" is to gather mail so it's not on the kitchen counter.

Before and After

We finished our makeover of the pine kitchen cabinet and hutch (see "Naughty Pine" post below) and we are very happy with the way it turned out.  Here's the before...notice the old-fashioned brass hardware and wooden knobs.

And here's the after... love the new hardware.  It's hard to see in the photo but they're a very rustic iron which goes well with the new Wine Glass Chandelier which is made of iron.  I'm also happy with the chalkboard grey background which gives it a really clean and neat look.  I'm going to be a bit more sparing in what goes back on it so it's not so cluttered.

Happy to have the time change since I like it to stay light later in the evening.  Update on my cortisone shot from last Wednesday...so far, absolutely no improvement which is really disappointing.

Jury's Still Out

The jury is still out as to whether the cortisone injection is going to work.  They say it can take several days and up to a week to know for sure.  It went fine and I didn't have any complications or side effects so that's good.  It took all of about 5 minutes total other than me waiting for almost an hour to go in.  Thank goodness for People Magazine's Oscar Gowns edition.  For the first 48 hours, I needed to use an ice pack every so often and that wasn't too fun with the cold, drizzly weather we're having.  It also slowed my painting since it was too damp and cold to paint.  Jeff brought the top part of the hutch into the boy's bedroom so I'll probably work on that today.

My Wine Glass Chandelier arrived from Pottery Barn on Wednesday just two days after I ordered it so I ran all over town yesterday finding 30 wine glasses.  I wanted all tulip shaped glasses but in 3 different sizes.  I found 16 (4 boxes of 4) large glasses for the top tier at Bed, Bath & Beyond, 10 medium glasses for the middle tier at Cost Plus and 4 small glasses for the bottom tier at HomeGoods.  They are all dishwasher safe and I paid around $2.00 for each glass which is pretty economical.  Jeff did a great job of installing it as usual.  So glad he is handy at so many things.  Here's a photo.

The chain swag part looks better than in the photo.  Since I was shooting from below you can't really see how it looks.  In addition to doing the electrical for my chandelier, Jeff also installed two new outdoor coach lights on either side of the garage door at our other house where Jessica and family live.  There wasn't wiring for them so he had to do all the wiring and cut holes in the stucco to install them.  

Kim asked to see our desk area from which we blog.  Here's a photo including Hunter taking up all my space.  He does that when he thinks I need to pay more attention to him and less to the computer.

Naughty Pine

Okay so it's really "Knotty Pine" and I'm in the middle of a pine kitchen cabinet and hutch makeover.  I have always liked country pine but it's really been out of popularity for quite a while now.  Since I'm replacing my pine chandelier with the new wine glass chandelier, I decided to paint my old china cabinet.  Jeff helped me wash it down with TSP (Tri-Sodium Phosphate) and then yesterday I gave it a coat of white primer.  I'm painting it a creamy off-white all except for the back of the open shelves which I'm painting a chalkboard grey.  I found some nice new hardware in a rusty iron that I'll use to replace the brass hinges, drawer pulls and cabinet knobs.  I don't want to spend any money on new furniture for the kitchen because, as I mentioned before, it all really needs to go and have a complete remodel from top to bottom.  I'd even like to remove walls to open it to the dining room and living room.  Every time I paint wordwork I realize how much I hate it.  I don't mind painting walls but I really dislike painting things with cracks and crevices.  I told Jacob to remind me how much I dislike painting the next time I have the brilliant idea to paint something.  I better post a before photo and hopefully I'll like the after.

  This morning at 7 AM, I'm having the cortisone injection in my spine for my ruptured/herniated/slipped disc/disk.  I've seen all terms and both spellings used for the same thing.  Hope it helps!

Merry March!

Didn't have time to do my Monday post last night as we were at a LAFD retirement dinner all the way out in Temecula.  It's about a 2 hour drive for us.  We had a nice time with lots of good Mexican food and Margaritas.  This is going to be a nice month with the time change coming next weekend, St. Patrick's Day on the 17th, the first day of spring on the 20th and Easter on the last day of the month.  Justin and Sarah are leaving next week for another whirlwind tour of Europe and we will be dog-sitting Sierra again.  Not sure of their final itinerary yet but I know they will be in Dublin close to St. Patrick's Day.  They may also be in Rome around the time a new Pope is chosen so that could be interesting.

The party we went to was at the home of our fireman's friend's daughter and she had the Pottery Barn chandelier that I've always liked.  It's really just a rack and you hang wine glasses from it.  I've also seen martini glasses used.  I like the idea because you can easily remove the glasses and wash them in the dishwasher.  I'd buy it but I really have no good place to use it.  I don't think it would work well in a kitchen and I have my made-over chandelier in my dining room.  Here's a photo of it.

Forget what I just said!  Pottery Barn sent me a coupon so I ordered it.  Who cares if it doesn't go in my kitchen... I need a new kitchen anyway!  It'll be here next week!  Now I have to shop for 30 wine glasses!